In recent years the number of gambling casinos, as well as the amount of money handled by them, has increased dramatically. In addition to new and larger casinos in well-established gambling resorts such as Monte Carlo, and those in the State of Nevada, the recent legalization of gambling in New Jersey, has resulted in a proliferation of casinos in Atlantic City. Games provided by these casinos must be able to attract the casual participant, as well as the "hard-core" player, and must provide constant interest for a large number of players in an attractive, exciting setting. For the most part, casinos have relied upon such games as roulette, craps, blackjack, keno, and various manifestations of slot machines to attract their audiences.
Poker, the most popular gambling game in America, has largely been ignored by casinos. The basic reasons for this are that casino poker games are slower and offer lower proportional winnings than other casino games and, hence, are less exciting for the players and less profitable for the casinos. The playing action in poker is slow because each player must, in turn, make a decision for each round of betting (and/or discarding), and the casino dealer must shuffle the cards, deal to each player, calculate the house cut from the pot, and make change for the players. High-low split pot games, a very popular form of poker require even more time since he must divide the pot among the high and low winners. The physical limitations of a 52-card deck places limits on the number of players who may participate in a given game, and also limits the amounts that can be won by the players and the percentage taken by the casino. Also, since poker is a game of skill as well as luck, the casual player often feels intimidated when playing against strangers, some of whom may be experts and others of whom may play very conservatively.
It is, of course, known to provide electronic devices to simulate the playing of poker or other card games. The known devices, however, are limited insofar as they allow only one or two players to play the game simultaneously and, although individual machines may have means to store data relating to the number of cards played and discarded, the betting totals, etc., none of the prior art devices discloses the concept of using a central computer unit to electronically simulate a gambling game and store large amounts of data from a relatively large number of game players. It is also known to provide electronic gaming devices wherein a plurality of individual units are electronically linked to a central computer which records and tabulates playing data. Most of these known devices rely upon the performance of an actual event (i.e., bingo, keno, horse racing, etc.) and do not provide an electronic simulation of the event itself.
Individual booths having electronically simulated gaming events are also known, but these are typically self-contained units for individual participants and no means are provided to link the units with a central computer which controls the game, and tabulates betting and card information.